are we all just scrolling through life?

I tried to live but I got distracted

I’m Tuğba, a Turkish-Greek artist living in Berlin - as slow as possible is a newsletter exploring the in-between spaces of our lives that we see but often do not notice. Interested in reading more of my work?

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Wake up… sip coffee while scrolling Instagram, reply to messages while skimming the news, join a Zoom meeting while checking WhatsApp, eat breakfast while drafting an email, scroll TikTok while pretending to listen in a meeting, eat lunch while watching YouTube, scroll Slack while tweaking a document, check WhatsApp while reading a book, eat dinner while scrolling reels, watch YouTube while clicking on ads, watch Netflix while shopping online, scroll endlessly, scroll, scroll, 1am shut the laptop, try to sleep while mentally replaying unfinished tasks, wake up, repeat… Does this feel good?

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Just the other day, my friend said to me, "Tuğba, remember, I'm a man, and I can't multitask." But can anyone truly multitask?

Computer scientists coined the term "multitasking" in the 1960s to describe machines with multiple processors. What did we do? We applied that term to humans.

Even worse, many companies promote multitasking as a badge of honour. Job descriptions frequently demand the ability to multitask, presenting it as the holy grail of skills. Without question, we have proudly adopted this notion in our daily lives. Yet, it is nothing more than an illusion, and plenty of research highlights this reality.

“Your brain can only produce one or two thoughts in your conscious mind at once. That's it. We're very single-minded. We have very limited cognitive capacity.”

Earl Miller - Professor of Neuroscience at MIT

The Illusion of Efficiency

When we think we are multitasking, we are actually "juggling." Juggling means we constantly switch between tasks, and even if we feel like we are doing them simultaneously, we aren't! Our brains create the illusion of a seamless experience, but in reality, we are switching and reconfiguring each time we change tasks. This switching comes at a cost.

Consider this:

Every time you pick up your phone to check WhatsApp for a quick glimpse, it's like shutting down your laptop and starting it up again to reconfigure it for the previous task. If you think restarting your laptop takes a while, know that it takes us, on average, 25 minutes¹ to regain our focus after just a 5-second distraction from our phones!

On an average day, we switch between different apps and websites about 1,200 times. According to a study by Harvard Business Review² who studied 20 teams across three Fortune 500 companies for up to five weeks, the participants switched between apps and websites more than 3,600 times. If we only consider our phones³, on average, we touch them 2,617 times a day, with heavy users reaching up to 5,427 touches daily.

Now, imagine this scenario: What would happen to your laptop if you were to turn it on and off over 2,000 times each day?

Even a machine couldn't endure that kind of treatment—it would break down!

Yes, even though we sometimes forget it, we are not machines. Is it any wonder that we feel drained and exhausted by the end of the day? I have days when I collapse into bed, feeling like my soul has left my body. I'm completely bewildered, and no matter what I do, I can't seem to bring my attention back to my body. No amount of mindfulness can bridge this disassociation. And no, your 20-minute meditation won't compensate for the remaining 15 hours spent hurriedly darting through life from one task to another.

I nearly fell off my chair when I read this⁴:

Interruptions can lower your IQ by 10 to 15 points. To put that into perspective, a 10-point drop in IQ is twice as significant as the effect of smoking weed, while a 15-point drop is equivalent to staying up all night.

We have spiralled into a world where our rationality, intelligence, and focus slip more and more away. When our ability to concentrate shatters, so does our problem-solving capacity.

Hyperconnected? More Like Hyper-Overwhelmed!

I was reflecting the other day and realised how much our lives these days are characterised by shallow living. It feels like we are connected to the entire world, and with the press of a button, we can find out about anything. However, the cost of this connectivity is that there is barely any depth left in our experiences. We are sacrificing depth in all areas of our lives to maintain this hyperconnection with the world.

We often neglect the time and energy needed to address pressing issues in our communities because we're too occupied with events happening on the other side of the continent. We are like zombies, absorbed in our phones and laptops, easily manipulated by the content we consume online. As a result, we often lose the ability to question and pay attention to critical issues, such as the homelessness crisis⁵ in our communities and the climate crisis⁶—a significant threat to our survival.

We are increasingly unable to genuinely appreciate and enjoy the people and experiences right in front of us because we are hyperconnected with hundreds of strangers on the internet every day.

We no longer live in a way that aligns with human nature. Our obsession with speed degrades our inner world, preventing us from truly going inward, feeling our emotions, exploring our creativity, and fully absorbing life's precious experiences. The nonstop demand for our attention prevents us from going beyond shallow living to a deeper, more meaningful existence.

The crucial question is:

How can we slow down in a world that keeps speeding up? How can we prevent the decline of humanity?

Many of us feel that something isn't right, and many of us blame ourselves—or worse, we're told we should just take responsibility for our own behaviour. You have a choice, I have heard people say! While there are certainly things we can do, I no longer believe the issue lies solely with us; the problem is the system. There are people behind our screens who are paid exorbitant amounts of money to devise ways to keep us increasingly addicted. No amount of self-discipline can fully counteract that.

Growth Over Everything—Even Your Sanity!

I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist suggesting that tech companies are out to get us. Still, we must remember that we live in a capitalist society where growth is all that matters. I have worked (and am still working) in various big tech companies over the years, and even those that are more humane and treat their employees well are fundamentally focused on growth. Ultimately, I always know I am just a number on the payroll, and if the company isn't growing, I will be let go regardless of how much effort I have put in.

“[Social media firms are] coming for every second of your life...And it's not because anyone is bad; it's not because anybody in this company has evil plans or is trying to do this; they're not even doing it consciously. Their entire model is growth. They're coming for every second of your life. We used to colonize land. Then they realized [let's go after] human attention. They are now trying to colonize every minute of your life."

Bo Burnham

Many companies use techniques aimed at exploiting vulnerabilities in human psychology. This is nothing new and has been done for years! I read that one of the first questions Sean Parker, one of Facebook's earliest investors, asked was: How do we consume as much of people's time and conscious attention as possible?

Tony Fadell, the co-inventor of the iPhone, stated,

"I wake up in cold sweats every so often thinking, what did we bring to the world? Did we really bring a nuclear bomb with information that can—like we see with fake news—blow up people's brains and reprogram them? Or did we bring light to people who never had information, who can now be empowered?"

The Rise of Attention Activism

Not long ago, I came across the concept of "attention activism." I thought, "Wow, this is exactly what we need." The Strother School of Radical Attention⁷ (SoRA) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to attention activism—a movement to resist the exploitation of human attention by coercive digital technologies. Through its initiatives, SoRA seeks to raise awareness and inspire actionable change among individuals and organisations. The movement encourages users to reclaim their time and attention, advocating for a more mindful approach to technology use.

Purely personal and individual solutions are no longer effective. We need activists and a collective effort to challenge tech companies. Remember when tobacco companies wielded so much power? I can still recall the days when they felt untouchable, with doctors promoting smoking cigarettes on national TV. Outrageous! However, as a collective, we fought back, and they no longer hold that power over us. Their marketing tactics are no longer able to blind us, thanks to the many regulations and restrictions⁸ in place today. I hope that we can mobilise in the same way to push for changes in big tech.

User Well-Being: Because We’re More Than Just Clickbait

There are many healthy ways to incentivise people who work in tech companies. It is possible to shift tech workers’ success metrics to prioritise user well-being. If we push collectively, we can encourage governments to mandate transparency in the design practices of big tech companies. User health over engagement should become the new standard.

While some companies, like Apple, have already made changes under pressure—such as incorporating "Screen Time" as a feature on their phones—more needs to be done.

For instance, a simple approach could be to keep all notification settings turned off by default, allowing users to enable them at their own risk. Astonishingly, two-thirds of smartphone users never change their default notification settings⁹. Remember, on average, it takes 25 minutes to regain focus after a distraction, so it seems reckless to leave the door open for others to control our attention.

What’s Next?

The greatest need of our time is to clear out the enormous mass of mental rubbish that clutters our minds, and one of the most critical skills, both now and in the future, is the ability to be selective and conscious about what we feed our minds with on a daily basis.

The internet, laptops, phones, and social media are here to stay. While there is a trend of "dumb" phones¹⁰, and I keep reading and hearing more about the Light Phone¹¹, I believe that our smartphones, laptops, and the internet provide numerous benefits. I hope we can focus more on these benefits while also working to reduce the negatives associated with them.

This is the first part of my attention series, and I plan to write more on this topic. Although, I previously shared some hints about how I personally manage distractions, I believe there is much more we can do beyond simply locking away our phones or switching to basic phones.

Below, you can find some valuable resources in the footnotes¹² on what is already being done and how we can become attention activists. I would love to hear your thoughts. The discussions in the comments are precious, and I feel so seen. I'm always excited to delve deeper and discuss with you.

Take care!

Your friend Tuğba

How can I show some love for what you do?

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1. More on the task switching data here.

2. The full study by HBR.

3. The studies on how often we touch our phones can be found here, here and here.

4. The effct on our IQ can be found here and here.

5. Around 1.3 million people are currently homeless in Europe. This crisis affects millions globally, with estimates showing that approximately 150 million people are homeless, and around 1.6 billion people live as squatters, refugees, or in temporary shelters as of 2023. The homelessness crisis is worsening due to escalating economic challenges, housing shortages, social exclusion, and other systemic issues.

6. Research indicates that 37% of heat-related deaths can be attributed to human-induced climate change, with a significant 70% increase in heat-related deaths among individuals over 65 years old over the past two decades. Interestingly, research also shows that people feel a greater sense of personal responsibility to act against COVID-19 than they do for climate change. A study found that only 41% of Europeans believe they should take personal responsibility for tackling climate change, while 63% think national governments should lead these efforts.

7. I’m planning on attendting some of the workshops at The Strother School of Radical Attention. There is also a really good podcast with Ezra Klein and D. Graham Burnett, who also works at SoRA.

8. Disclaimer: While traditional tobacco use is declining globally, vaping is creating new challenges, especially among youth. My research shows that although vaping regulations are tightening and often align with traditional tobacco controls, there is still variability based on regional policies. Many countries are recognizing the risks of vaping for youth, resulting in stricter regulations similar to those for tobacco.

9. It's a bit outdated, as the research is from 2017, but I don't think this has changed drastically over the years, considering how many of my friends and family still have their notifications turned on.

10. A dumb phone is a basic mobile phone that offers limited features, primarily voice calling and texting, without the advanced capabilities of smartphones. Think of your old Nokia phone :)

11. A light phone is a minimalist mobile phone designed to offer essential functions, such as calling and texting, while reducing distractions from apps and the internet.

12. The Center for Humane Technology is an organization dedicated to promoting ethical technology practices that prioritize user well-being, mental health, and democratic functioning while addressing the negative impacts of digital technologies. The Center was founded by Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin. Tristan Harris is a former design ethicist at Google and Aza Raskin is a former user experience designer at Mozilla, known for his work on the Firefox browser.

I highly recommend Johann Hari's work on this topic, especially his book Stolen Focus. I loved reading it, and it provided me with valuable insights for this post.